It takes more than a free lunch to round up a roomful of working Vermont journalists. On June 13, before and after a buffet, the University of Vermont's Center for Community News served up a day of programming in the Silver Pavilion of the Alumni House for those of us in the business of informing the public about what's happening in our state. CCN director Richard Watts deserves credit for convening the group — for the fourth year in a row — and connecting us to identify common threats and opportunities. While his official job is to build the student journalism program he founded, which last year won a $7 million grant from the Knight Foundation, the local media ecosystem around it faces urgent and existential challenges, from finding the money to pay reporters to ensuring they have access to the news they seek. I first interacted with Watts when he was director of UVM's Center for Research on Vermont. He published a newsletter with stories I often wished we'd had in Seven Days — and I told him so. Not surprisingly, Watts is a former journalist. He also ran political campaigns. Savvy, strategic and driven, he's a master networker. Watts was the one who thought to invite former Vermont Supreme Court justice John Dooley to the conference to talk about current threats to press freedom — and had his phone number. In a session titled "Defending Journalism in Vermont and Beyond," the retired judge schooled the crowd on the 1964 precedent-setting legal case, New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, that defines "defamation" in this country — arguably, with too much wiggle room. Dooley was in good company with Lia Ernst, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont, who has been involved in almost all of the recent immigration cases that have wound up in local courts. She had practical advice for journalists covering protests and also crossing the border. Matt Byrne — an attorney with Gravel & Shea who represents many Vermont media outlets, including Seven Days, on First Amendment issues — talked about ways to strengthen local laws to better protect news publishers and reporters. All agreed that Vermont's public records law, which now has countless exemptions, badly needs an overhaul so that journalists can better access information the public has a right to know. That would involve the legislature. In the audience were…
It takes more than a free lunch to round up a roomful of working Vermont journalists. On June 13, before and after a buffet, the University of Vermont's Center for Community News served up a day of programming in the Silver Pavilion of the Alumni House for those of us in the business of informing the public about what's happening in our state. CCN director Richard Watts deserves credit for convening the group — for the fourth year in a row — and connecting us to identify common threats and opportunities. While his official job is to build the student journalism program he founded, which last year won a $7 million grant from the Knight Foundation, the local media ecosystem around it faces urgent and existential challenges, from finding the money to pay reporters to ensuring they have access to the news they seek. I first interacted with Watts when he was director of UVM's Center for Research on Vermont. He published a newsletter with stories I often wished we'd had in Seven Days — and I told him so. Not surprisingly, Watts is a former journalist. He also ran political campaigns. Savvy, strategic and driven, he's a master networker. Watts was the one who thought to invite former Vermont Supreme Court justice John Dooley to the conference to talk about current threats to press freedom — and had his phone number. In a session titled "Defending Journalism in Vermont and Beyond," the retired judge schooled the crowd on the 1964 precedent-setting legal case, New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, that defines "defamation" in this country — arguably, with too much wiggle room. Dooley was in good company with Lia Ernst, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont, who has been involved in almost all of the recent immigration cases that have wound up in local courts. She had practical advice for journalists covering protests and also crossing the border. Matt Byrne — an attorney with Gravel & Shea who represents many Vermont media outlets, including Seven Days, on First Amendment issues — talked about ways to strengthen local laws to better protect news publishers and reporters. All agreed that Vermont's public records law, which now has countless exemptions, badly needs an overhaul so that journalists can better access information the public has a right to know. That would involve the legislature. In the audience were…